Economies of Merit
In many monastic and religious traditions, ethical and spiritual “merit” gets traded like a commodity.[1. For example, the 15th and 16th century papacy’s practice of selling spiritual indulgences: “the Church drew from the the treasury of merits accumulated by the good works of the saints, and in return the recipient made a contribution to the […]
The Ages of Western Monasticism
From P. Langdale Hough at Plumblines: From Walled Towns (1919), by Ralph Adams Cram (courtesy of Schmitz). Pages 34 – 35: At the beginning of the Christian the impulse was personal, the individual was the unit, and the result was the anchorites and hermits, each isolating himself a hidden mountain cave, a hut in the desert, […]
Of Gods and Men
Listen to an NPR story about the film. Listen to an NPR story about the film.
“Convento” at SXSW
Anyone going to South by Southwest this year? Check out Convento, a documentary by Jarred Alterman: Dutch kinetic artist Christiaan Zwanikken resurrects the deceased local wildlife by reanimating the skeletal remains with servomotors and robotic engineering. He breeds these new species in a 400 yr. old monastery in a village in Portugal that has been […]
The Monastic University
Is there room for monasteries on university campuses these days? More and more, I envision joining the work we’ve been doing at the Art Monastery Project to existing academic institutions. Imagine artmonks & postgrads, exploring the wide world of (secular/interfaith) monastic living together. Especially if you convinced them that being a monk didn’t have to […]
Rilke was an artmonk
In his 20’s, German poet Ranier Maria Rilke visited a Russian monastery. The private prayerbook that resulted is now published as his Book of Hours. From the Book of Monastic Life, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, Wenn es nur einmal so ganz stille wäre: If only for once it were still. If the not quite […]
Introduction to Chant — Supplementary Materials
MP3’s (right-click or control-click to download): Solo soprano Monks Notation:
1/4/11 San Francisco Artmonks meetup
This Tuesday the San Francisco Artmonks will convene at the Berkeley home of two artmonks, composers Tom Bickley and Nancy Beckman. Tom & Nancy came to the Art Monastery in Labro, Italy last spring as artmonks-in-residence, and are now connecting with other Bay Area artmonks to develop a local community of contemplative creatives. They have generously offered […]
Monasticism: “putting one’s central energy into a life that revolves around awakening.”
From Benedict’s Dharma: What are sometimes called “lay monasticism” and “householder practice” are certainly not new, but as vehicles of awakening they are “really a big experiment,” as Joseph Goldstein said. “At a conference some months ago I met a psychiatrist, a very busy guy, who told me that in the last twenty years not […]
